A Kurdish-majority neighborhood in Syria recovers from clashes with hope for the future

ALEPPO, Syria (AP) — A month after clashes rocked a Kurdish-majority neighborhood in Syria ’s second-largest city of Aleppo, most of the tens of thousands of residents who fled the fighting between government forces and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces have returned — an unusually quick turnaround in a country where conflict has left many displaced for years.

“Ninety percent of the people have come back,” Aaliya Jaafar, a Kurdish resident of the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood who runs a hair salon, said Saturday. “And they didn’t take long. This was maybe the shortest displacement in Syria."

Her family only briefly left their house when government forces launched a drone strike on a lot next door where weapons were stored, setting off explosions.

The Associated Press visited the community that was briefly at the center of Syria's fragile transition from years of civil war as the new government tries to assert control over the country and gain the trust of minority groups anxious about their security.

The clashes broke out Jan. 6 in the predominantly Kurdish neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud, Achrafieh and Bani Zaid after the government and the SDF reached an impasse in talks on how to merge Syria’s largest remaining armed group into the national army. Security forces captured the neighborhoods after several days of intense fighting during which at least 23 people were killed and more than 140,000 people displaced.

However, Syria's new government took measures to avoid civilians being harmed, unlike during previous outbreaks of violence between its forces and other groups on the coast and in the southern province of Sweida, during which hundreds of civilians from the Alawite and Druze religious minorities were killed in sectarian revenge attacks.

Before entering the contested Aleppo neighborhoods, the Syrian army opened corridors for civilians to flee.

Ali Sheikh Ahmad, a former member of the SDF-affiliated local police force who runs a secondhand clothing shop in Sheikh Maqsoud, was among those who left. He and his family returned a few days after the fighting stopped.

At first, he said, residents were afraid of revenge attacks after Kurdish forces withdrew and handed over the neighborhood to government forces. But that has not happened. A ceasefire agreement between Damascus and the SDF has been holding, and the two sides have made progress toward political and military integration.

“We didn’t have any serious problems like what happened on the coast or in Sweida,” Sheikh Ahmad said. The new security forces “treated us well,” and residents’ fears began to dissipate.

Jaafar agreed that residents had been afraid at first but that government forces “didn’t harm anyone, to be honest, and they imposed security, so people were reassured.”

The neighborhood’s shops have since reopened and traffic moves normally, but the checkpoint at the neighborhood's entrance is now manned by government forces instead of Kurdish fighters.

Residents, both Kurds and Arabs, chatted with neighbors along the street. An Arab man who said he was named Saddam after the late Iraqi dictator — known for oppressing the Kurds — smiled as his son and a group of Kurdish children played with a dirty but friendly orange kitten.

Other children played with surgical staplers from a neighborhood hospital that was targeted during the recent fighting, holding them like toy guns. The government accused the SDF of taking over the hospital and using it as a military site, while the SDF said it was sheltering civilians.

One boy, looking pleased with himself, emerged from an alleyway carrying the remnant of an artillery shell.

On Friday, SDF leader Mazloum Abdi said he had held a “very productive meeting” with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani on the sidelines of a security conference in Munich to discuss progress made on the integration agreement.

While the security situation is calm, residents said their economic plight has worsened. Many previously relied on jobs with the SDF-affiliated local authorities, who are no longer in charge. And small businesses suffered after the clashes drove away customers and interrupted electricity and other services.

“The economic situation has really deteriorated," Jaafar said. "For more than a month, we've barely worked at all.”

Others are taking a longer view. Sheikh Ahmad said he hopes that if the ceasefire remains in place and the political situation stabilizes, he will be able to return to his original home in the town of Afrin near the border with Turkey, which his family fled during a 2018 Turkish offensive against Kurdish forces.

Like many Syrians. Sheikh Ahmad has been displaced multiple times since mass protests against the government of then-President Bashar Assad spiraled into a brutal 14-year civil war.

Assad was ousted in November 2024 in an insurgent offensive, but the country has continued to see sporadic outbreaks of violence, and the new government has struggled to win the trust of religious and ethnic minorities.

Last month, interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa issued a decree strengthening the rights of Syria's Kurdish minority, including recognizing Kurdish as a national language along with Arabic and adopting Nowruz, a traditional celebration of spring and renewal marked by Kurds around the region, as an official holiday. Kurds make up about 10% of Syria's population.

The decree also restored the citizenship of tens of thousands of Kurds in northeastern al-Hasakeh province after they were stripped of it during the 1962 census

Sheikh Ahmad said he was encouraged by al-Sharaa's attempts to reassure the Kurds that they are equal citizens and hopes to see more than tolerance among Syria's different communities.

“We want something better than that. We want people to love each other. We've had enough of wars after 15 years. It's enough,” he said.

A shepherd herds his flock on a street of the Kurdish-majority neighborhood of Sheikh Maqsoud, in Aleppo, Syria, Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)

Youths play near a damaged school in the Kurdish-majority neighborhood of Sheikh Maqsoud, in Aleppo, Syria, Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

People walk along a street in the Kurdish-majority neighborhood of Sheikh Maqsoud, in Aleppo, Syria, Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)

Hairstylist Aliaa al Jafar stands in her studio during an interview in the Kurdish-majority neighborhood of Sheikh Maqsoud, in Aleppo, Syria, Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)

A boy plays with a cat on a street of the Kurdish-majority neighborhood of Sheikh Maqsoud, in Aleppo, Syria, Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

ADELAIDE, Australia (AP) — Anthony Kim walked out of a PGA Tour scoring trailer at Quail Hollow and straight to the parking lot on May 4, 2012. He put his clubs in the trunk and drove away, vanishing from golf and from the public view for 12 years.

Kim was all the way back Sunday in Australia, full of swagger and energy, as he capped off a stunning rally — not just in the final round of LIV Golf Adelaide but in life. Five shots behind Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau, he closed with a 9-under 63 for his first win in nearly 16 years.

He put on an electric show with leg-kicking, fist-throwing reactions for his four straight birdies before LIV's largest and loudest gallery of the season.

“I'm too old to be reacting like that because I think I pulled something in my hip,” the 40-year-old Kim said to laughter. “But I will say that was all the lows I went through in my life that I got to dig out of. Every putt that went I felt the struggle and I was overcoming it. It was therapeutic out there to fight through it and come out on top.”

Those struggles include drug and alcohol addiction so severe Kim considers it a minor miracle he is still alive. He is married with a 4-year-old daughter, Bella, who raced onto the 18th green at The Grange Golf Club and into his arms.

“To be able to share this moment — even though Bella won’t understand it, one day she will — and for her to be able to run on the green and see her dad isn’t a loser was one of the most special moments of my life,” Kim said.

LIV Golf took a chance on Kim in 2024 when he played as a wild card, often finishing at the bottom of the small fields. Last season wasn't much better, though he showed signs of the progress — 1% better each day is his motto — late last season.

He was relegated out of the Saudi-funded league. He tied for fifth in the Saudi International. He had to play a qualifying tournament last month just to get another season on the LIV Tour.

Perhaps the final boost of confidence: Dustin Johnson signed Kim to his 4 Aces team when Patrick Reed decided to leave the league.

The three-shot victory over Rahm was as big as any moment on LIV, at a time when the league lost two of its bigger names in Brooks Koepka and Reed. All that mattered to Kim was coming full circle.

“I know the mainstream media is not going to pick it up,” said Kim, winning amid the Winter Olympics, the Daytona 500 and the NBA All-Star Game.

“But for the people that do hear about it, I want to be a good example,” he said. “I would say that I wasn’t the best person, the best partner, the best whatever you want to call it, the best son I could be when I was younger. But who I am today is a completely different person. With God, my family, my sobriety being the key things to my life, I can go as far as I want.”

Playing in black shorts — with black calf-length socks and white shoes — in front of a large crowd on a sunny day at The Grange, Kim caught up to Rahm after nine holes and pulled away. Thousands of spectators followed behind him in the 18th fairway when he capped off his amazing day.

It was his first victory since the 2010 Houston Open, the last of his three titles on the PGA Tour. He had not finished higher than a tie for 22nd on LIV, last week in Saudi Arabia. He won $4 million — he made just over $4.6 million in his best season on the PGA Tour.

Rahm closed with a 71 and DeChambeau shot 74 on a day the average score was 69.8.

Kim reached as high as No. 6 in the world in 2008, the year he played in his only Ryder Cup at Valhalla and needed only 14 holes to beat Sergio Garcia in singles. He moves to just outside the top 200 now that LIV gets world ranking points.

As big a win as it was for Kim, it was popular among the players he beat.

“I cried,” Lucas Herbert said.

“Man, he was a gun,” said Marc Leishman, whose rookie season on the PGA Tour coincided with Kim's peak years. "He almost had an aura about him, somewhat for his golf, somewhat for his partying. I mean, to see where he’s come from ... I’ve actually spoken to him a fair bit over the last couple of years about a few of his experiences.

“It’s an unbelievable story, the place he got to and how close he was to not being here. I’m not talking about in Adelaide, I’m talking about not being on this planet.”

AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

Anthony Kim of 4Aces GC waves to the fans after winning first place during the final round of the LIV Golf Adelaide at Grange Golf Club in Adelaide, Australia Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026. (Pedro Salado/LIV Golf via AP)

Captain Bryson DeChambeau of Crushers GC hits his shot from a bunker on the fourth hole during the final round of the LIV Golf Adelaide at Grange Golf Club in Adelaide, Australia Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026. (Charles Laberge/LIV Golf via AP)

Captain Bryson DeChambeau of Crushers GC reads his putt on the second green during the final round of the LIV Golf Adelaide at Grange Golf Club in Adelaide, Australia Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026. (Charles Laberge/LIV Golf via AP)

Anthony Kim of 4Aces GC hits his shot from the second fairway during the final round of the LIV Golf Adelaide at Grange Golf Club in Adelaide, Australia Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026. (Charles Laberge/LIV Golf via AP)

Anthony Kim of 4Aces GC reacts to his putt on the 18th green during the final round of the LIV Golf Adelaide at Grange Golf Club in Adelaide, Australia Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026. (Charles Laberge/LIV Golf via AP)